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First Vote on tax cut plan coming

US Congress which is controlled by the Republicans approached a major test on Thursday of its ability to enact sweeping rates of slashing taxes as lawmakers prepared for the first full-scale vote on the legislation of taxes. The Republicans in the House of Representatives were expected to take up their bill for cutting the rate of federal taxes on small businesses, corporations and individuals after an 11:30 a.m. meeting with US President Donald Trump, who wants to sign a tax package into law before the end of this year. Paul Ryan who is the US House Speaker told Fox News early on Thursday that he was quite confident that his chamber had the votes to pass their version of the plan a vote was expected early Thursday afternoon. The Republican president tweeted on Wednesday night that a big vote is going to take place in the House tomorrow which means that the slashing of the rate of taxes is coming. But at the same time, Trump's tax reform hopes have begun to encounter resistance in the Senate, where the narrow majority of the Republicans means they have to keep almost everyone in the party on board.

The Senate version of the tax bill has faced a fair bit of criticism from some Republican lawmakers which includes Senator Susan Collins, who had helped in the sinking of a Republican effort to repeal Obamacare earlier this year. The Senate Republicans have made the risky decision to tie their tax plan to a repeal of the compulsory act for people to get healthcare insurance under the Affordable Care Act of former Democratic President Barack Obama, thereby exposing the tax initiative to the same political forces that wrecked their anti - Obamacare push. Ron Johnson a Republican Senator said that Donald Trump called him on Wednesday night after Johnson had announced his opposition to the current Senate plan over what he said was non-similar rates for small businesses and non-corporate enterprises versus corporations. Johnson has also said that he was still very hopeful that a final bill could be passed by the end of this year. Johnson told CNBC that he is trying to fix it and he wants to vote yes. He added that Donald Trump told him he would meet with Treasury officials on the particular issue.